The Impact Of Social Media On Staff Performance In The Workplace
Introduction - The Impact Of Social Media On Staff Performance In The Workplace
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Task 1 – Planning a Research Project
1.1 Introduction
Nowadays, social media plays an important role in managing the performance of the staffs upon which the business performance of any organization is dependant. Different social media platforms are very important for the staffs and employees working in an workplace as it helps to create a strong bond and relationship between the employees and senior management. This helps to create a good workplace culture and environment by which the employees of the organization get motivated. Moreover, proper motivation of the employees also helps to create collaboration among the employees by which the performance of the employees and consequently performance of the organization also gets improved. In this task the different aspects of social media is to be discussed and the main aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of this social media and its use on the performance of the employees and the workplace culture.
1.2 Scope and Objectives of Research
The main aim of the research is to focus on the effect of social media on the organizational activities of employees. The objectives are:
To access the impact of social media on employees' performances
To highlight the necessity of social media for staff performance
To identify the factors responsible for the positive effect of social media on employees' performances
To provide a proper recommendation on the appropriate utilization of social media in workplaces.
1.3 Rationale of Research
There is the presence of different types of issues in using social media in offices as they create difficulties in working techniques of individuals. Due to the high use of social media, it has been seen that employees are not able to concentrate properly and lack confidence as well (Schroth, 2019). Moreover, social media is a time-consuming aspect; therefore, it decreases the level of efficiency of employees as well along with distracts them from their job roles.
1.4 Research Method, Approach and Techniques
There are two types of research methods that are generally used, which are counted to be as primary and secondary. The research approach that is used for the following research is the deductive research approach (Jia-Xi et al., 2019). The research technique and method that are used in the concerned research are both primary quantitative as well as secondary quantitative.
Task 2: Conducting the Research
2.1 Research methods for gathering secondary and primary data
The research method that is chosen for the primary data is primarily quantitative, which declares that a survey has been performed. In the survey, there were 51 participants who were selected from the population of employees working in UK firms. Moreover, secondary research is also done, which is considered to be a secondary qualitative method. The themes are developed based on the research topic, and its sources are books, journals and newspaper articles.
2.2 Data Analysis
Most of the participants who took part in the research stated it is necessary to use social media even in offices due to the fact of the advantage. Due to the presence reason, most of them also declared that the impact is more leaned towards positive than negative. As a result, they depicted that their performances are linked in direct proportion with social media utility.
Task 3: Presentation of Research Findings
3.1 Introduction
Social media is useful in case of enhancing working procedures of employees in workplaces as it can help them to gather knowledge in a short period. Additionally, this media platform assists to increase work-related abilities among employees and workers in workplaces. This study aims to provide a literature review, chosen research methods, findings, and recommendations on the effectiveness of social media on employee performances in workplaces. On the other hand, social media has the potential to minimise work-associated stress among employees and they are updated with real-time information and data. Employees get adequate valid and relevant information and data about their respective organisations.
3.2 Summary of literature review
3.2.1 Impact of social media on employees
Technologies enable improved productivity, collaboration, and effective communication among stakeholders. As pert the views of Archer?Brown et al. (2018), social media that are used by businesses, organisations employees, and customers help in case sharing data and information and exchanging of ideas as well as ends up in the significant results. On the other hand, it can be used for socialising purposes primarily and its utilisation is not responsible for productivity of work. On the other hand, it can interrupt the productivity of employees as employees can get distracted easily with the use of social media. Additionally, in certain cases, social media fails to provide authentic and relevant information and data about current news and phenomena. Additionally, it can cause jealousy among workers as people prefer to post various stuff on this type of media. This situation can harm team bonding, relationships, employee morale, and others.
3.2.2 Theoretical underpinning
Theory of social media includes both positive as well as negative impacts of this media platform on employee performance in workplaces. As per views of Sommariva et al. (2018), it includes a model that is named a model of “Social media strategy development”. It consists of three different contributing factors such as goals of social media, audience, and the brand. Additionally, there are several factors that determine ways of delivering three different component parts. Combination of audience, goals, and brand gives rise to other crucial elements of strategy of social media. These elements are capable of adding valued content to planning and interaction strategy.
Predictive Model
The respective model of social media is developed in order to not only analyze rather than understand the pattern of data that are available in social media such as Face book and Instagram. As per the view of Norris and Aziz (2019), the prediction model is developed based on measurable variables as it assists in prediction purposes such as the things that are to be happening as well as the cause of its happenings. In social media such as Instagram and Face book, there is the presence of human interaction along with a huge amount of data on social media.
3.2.3 Literature gap
The study includes a literature gap on a case impact of social media on employees in workplaces. There is a shortage of literature regarding this chosen topic as there is a lack of information about effectiveness of social media (Attaran et al. 2019). On the other hand, there is a lack of numerical information and statistics about impact of social media on employees in case of workplaces.
3.3 Research methods used
The study includes a positivism philosophy that is beneficial for developing natural phenomena with the inclusion of scientific knowledge based on the chosen topic. It is helpful to implement scientific knowledge related to the effectiveness of social media in working performance of employees (Marsonet, 2019). The study includes a deductive approach that is helpful to prove pre-existing phenomena or theories related to the chosen topic. The study highlights positive impacts of deductive approach in order to find out impact of social media on employees in work areas. The study involves both primary as well as secondary methods to find out effectiveness of social media on employees in workplaces. Primary methods help to gather data from primary sources such as employees working in different organisations in the UK. Secondary method helps the study to gather information and data from secondary sources such as articles, journals, and different company websites.
Sampling techniques suggest that this study includes random sampling for gathering information from chosen participants. 51 participants are chosen through a random sampling process for this study. Data analysis technique in this study includes both qualitative and quantitative methods. Informed consent needs to fill up by chosen participants prior to involving them in the research. Participants are well informed about the aims and purposes of the study and their answers and information are well protected and secured in the study. This study includes a survey as a research strategy and this survey includes certain chosen participants (Park et al. 2020). On the other hand, the study includes a certain act of data protection that ensures all chosen data are secured and protected by the researchers. Primary quantitative method is helpful to analyse numerical data from chosen participants. On the other hand, secondary qualitative methods help to analyse data and information that are collected from secondary sources.
3.4 Findings
3.4.1 Primary Quantitative
Question 1: What is your gender?
Findings
The first question is responsible for asking the gender of the research participants, and therefore, it is a demographic question. The total number of participants is 51, among which 27 are male and 54 are women.
Analysis
In the respective question, it acne be seen that the total number of female participants is more than male participants, which declared that the women are more influenced by social media in the workplace.
Question 2: What is your experience in the professional field?
Findings
The second question is related to the work experience of research participants who are provided with multiple options. There are five different options which are having experience of utmost two years, five years, ten years, 14 years, as well as more than 14 years.
Analysis
In the respective survey question, it can be visualized that among 51 participants, 20% of them have experience from 0 to 2 years, and 58% of them have an experience of mainly three years to 5 years. In addition to this, 22% have experience of 6 years to 10 years, 20% have work experience of 20%, and finally, 16% have more than 14 years of work experience.
Question 3: Do you think that social media is used in the workplace by employees?
Findings
In the following question, the participants were asked about their opinion about whether social media are used at a large scale in organizations' workplaces globally. All 51 participants took part in the survey, and the highest number of participants agreed with the fact.
Analysis
The strongly agreed and agreed number is more than in comparison to others as they believe that social media are used globally, even in workplaces. Social media are used in workplaces by staff in order to share important information as well as to stay updated (Moqbel and Kock, 2018).
Question 4: Do you agree with the fact that social media have a positive impact on the performance of the organization in the workplace?
Findings
Among 51, 15 agreed, and 12 strongly agreed that social media have a positive impact on employees' performance working in the organization during working hours. On the other hand, it can be seen that almost 13 of them stayed neutral as they believe that social media have both positive and negative impacts on their working activities in organizations.
Analysis
From the graph, it can be stated that the presence of social media and its utility in the workplace have a more positive impact than negative ones and is therefore agreed by maximum people. In addition to this, only the least number of people did not agree as they believe that using social media during working hours is a waste of time and decorations their performances as well.
Question 5: Do you agree that the performance of the staff of organizations in the office is directly dependent on the effectiveness of social media?
Findings
The respective question mainly focused on knowing the view of research participants on whether they believe that there is connectivity between their performances and social media. 18 among 51 strongly agreed, and 15 of 51 only agreed, which declares that social media effectiveness is high among participants during their working hours in the workplace.
Analysis
One of the main reasons behind the increase in the number of agreed and strongly agreed rather than the disagreed personalities is the usefulness of social media. Social media is used for multiple reasons in the workplace, among which the most important one is sharing documents in any format, such as audio and PDF (Cai et al. 2018).
Question 6: Do you believe that social media usability is needed to be controlled in the workplace to improve employees' performances?
Findings
The opinion of participants regarding the control overuse of social media in offices was asked through this particular question. 14 and 16 participants strongly agreed and agreed as they want the organizations to fix the time of using social media such that it is not misused by people.
Analysis
The scenario is the same as above, which declares that they agree with the fact that organizations need to control it such that it does not hamper their performances.
3.4.2 Secondary qualitative
Theme 1: Impact social media on minimising work pressure from employees
Social media is efficient to allow employees to take a much-required break as well as minimise their work pressure. The main reason for implementation and use of social media in workplaces is to take a healthy break from everyday stress at workplaces. As per views of Schroth (2019), social media provides people an escape from chaos of regular work and it also motivates them to work efficiently. It also helps employees to look into various phenomena and stay updated about recent news. This condition, on the other hand, helps employees to share relevant and recent knowledge across the workplace. As a result, in a majority of cases, organisations get beneficial effects from knowledge sharing. Social media allows employees to review various matters as per their interests. On the other hand, it can also improve engagement of employees in their regular job activities, responsibilities, and roles. Additionally, utilisation of social media helps employees to increase their job engagement as it can boost their minds, and strengthen their confidence. There are several videos that provide motivational thoughts to employees and contribute to enhancing creativity as well as job effectiveness of employees.
Corporates must regulate use of social media for personal purposes in offices to improve as well as maintain productivity among employees. Introducing “social media” in several workplaces readers to a tricky decision and depends on the way it is implemented in workplaces. It allows employees for a much-needed break from their regular work pressure. It also has potential in case of improved engagement of employees in their respective job roles. On the other hand, according to Song et al. (2019), it is beneficial for increasing firm bonding among teams and workplace relationships among employees and workers. On the other hand, employees experience a good and effective bonding with their colleagues as it helps to communicate with other employees and authorities. Social media encourages and influences casual conversations among employees. It is the quickest and easiest way for encouraging employees to maintain a healthy and friendly bonding with their colleagues in workplace. This also helps to build good relationships between
3.5 Recommendations
The study highlights several positive impacts of the utilisation of social media however; it also possesses certain negative impacts. Effects of social media on employees in case of a working environment depend on the ways how it is utilised in workplaces. It can provide a good impact by creating good communication between employees. It can be recommended that managers and leaders need to guide the usage of social media in workplaces to minimise negative impacts of social media (Haddud and McAllen, 2018). Additionally, it can be also advised to organisations that they need to implement certain policies to eradicate negative impact of social media on employees. On the other hand, negative usage of social media can create a negative impact on employees. Organisations need to provide a guideline to their employees for effective uses of social media in workplaces.
Task 4 – Reflective Log
Description
Gibbs’ model refers to a reflective cycle that was coined by Graham Gibbs for giving structures from experiences to learning. It provides a framework to examine experiences and it helps to provide an experience of learners and understanding that have gained during a particular study and lesson (Ed, 2018). As per my experience, I have faced issues during the data collection process in both primary and secondary methods. I have used random sampling for selecting participants and it created issues for choosing different employees from different organisations in the UK. Managing, and organising the survey was a strenuous task to do. The survey was done through an online platform using Zoom meeting which created an inconvenience during the survey.
Feelings
The issue was about utilising an online platform while performing the survey and I got anxious during the problematic situation. According to Hong and Martin (2020), this step of Gibbs’ model assures learners to share their feeling about a particular experience. Chosen employees also felt frustrated during this problem as they are professionals and they have a lot of other things to do. As per my views, the situation affected the quality of the survey and I think I need more patience while facing that type of issue.
Evaluation
I can evaluate the situation through Gibbs’ model which is effective for further proceeding with this type of job. This phase gives a chance to site details of evaluation of the particular experience gained by a learner during a specific study (Ed, 2018). It can be evaluated from the problematic situation that network problems and server down is a common issue while using internet for a survey. Additionally, there are good things such as the chosen participants showed patience during the problematic situation.
Analysis
This model is used in the study to share my experience and understanding during processing with the study. As per my analysis, the survey goes well because of the patience of the participants. On the other hand, according to Nurhadi and Ilfitriah, (2020), the issue occurred due to the inconvenience of the internet and the software. It can be stated that I need to learn about various tools and techniques to use internet and online platform effectively in communicating with a large number of people.
Conclusion
This step is effective to conclude the selected experience in a positive or a negative way. I have learned that I need to increase my patience level while working with a large number of people. On the other hand, I must follow certain rules of using internet in case of gathering responses from a particular population.
Action plan
Specific actions
Timescales
Resource implications
Success criteria
Mitigating communication gap
1-2 days
Journals from reputed managers of companies
Listening to the issues of chosen participants
Learning about various software
2-3 days
Websites regarding useful software
Choosing the most efficient software for further survey
Increase patience level
2-3 days
Books and various practices from online sources
Facing problematic situations patiently
Table 1: Action plan
References
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Attaran, M., Attaran, S. and Kirkland, D., (2019). The need for digital workplace: increasing workforce productivity in the information age. International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems (IJEIS), 15(1), pp.1-23.
Cai, Z., Huang, Q., Liu, H. and Wang, X., (2018). Improving the agility of employees through enterprise social media: The mediating role of psychological conditions. International Journal of Information Management, 38(1), pp.52-63.
Ed, (2018), Gibbs' Reflective Cycle, Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle [Accessed on: 23.05.2022]
Haddud, A. and McAllen, D., (2018), August. Digital workplace management: exploring aspects related to culture, innovation, and leadership. In 2018 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
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Schroth, H., (2019). Are you ready for Gen Z in the workplace?. California Management Review, 61(3), pp.5-18.
Sommariva, S., Vamos, C., Mantzarlis, A., ?ào, L.U.L. and Martinez Tyson, D., (2018). Spreading the (fake) news: exploring health messages on social media and the implications for health professionals using a case study. American journal of health education, 49(4), pp.246-255.
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